Crusaders picked up what could turn out to be a crucial two points on their travels, as they saw off fellow promotion rivals Barrow Raiders with a hard-fought 23-6 win, writes Ryan Gould.

In the last four games, Crusaders have conceded just 30 points and, once again, it was the defensive performance that laid the platform for the victory.

Barrow, who have made their home ground a fortress this season, had plenty of opportunities to get past Crusaders’ defence, particularly when the hosts had a man advantage following Karl Ashall’s sin-bin.

But Anthony Murray’s men dug deep and never looked like letting go of their lead.

The opening exchanges were lively with both sides putting pressure on each other’s lines, but it was Barrow who had the first real chance of the game, as Max Wiper knocked the ball on as he went to touch down in the corner.

When Crusaders next went up the other end of the pitch, though, they didn’t pass up an opportunity, with Jamie Dallimore collecting Middlehurst’s chip over the Raiders defence to score.

The game was threatening to boil over so, when Karl Ashall put in a high tackle, referee Gareth Hewer sent Crusaders’ halfback in the sin-bin for ten minutes.

Hoewever, that didn’t seem to affect North Wales, as Scott Turner collected Dallimore’s high kick to cross in the corner and give Crusaders a ten-point advantage.

Joe Hambley couldn’t collect a kick to the corner as Barrow looked for a way back in the game, before Christiaan Roets’ tip-on, which would have seen Oakden score in the corner, was called forward ahead of the break.

The Raiders would have been hoping to start the second-half better than they’d performed in the first, if they wanted to get anything out of the game.

But they got off to the worst possible start as Jono Smith bulldozed his way over the line within a minute of the restart, after Barrow had knocked on from the kick-off.

Then, Crusaders had an Andy Moulsdale try disallowed - Mark Hobson was deemed to have obstructed a Barrow man near the line - before Cameron Pitman and Gary Middlehurst were both sent to the sin-bin for fighting.

Soon after, Barrow pulled a try back when an overlap on the right edge saw Craig Briscoe take in Josh Ward’s pass for a simple score.

With 20 minutes left on the clock following Briscoe’s effort, Barrow knew they had to throw everything at Crusaders, but several plays were forced and they couldn’t get over the whitewash.

And the visitors put the game to bed when Joe Burke collected a pass from Jono Smith, who had been released to break forward by Dallimore, to score next to the posts.

Gary Middlehurst’s drop-goal with a couple of minutes remaining gave Crusaders more of a cushion, before a successful penalty by Tommy Johnson on the hooter nudged the points difference column up by two points.